Three Things on Thursday #12

This week, our things include: A new set of Royal Mail stamps that celebrate British engineering, the case for doing nothing (and allowing creativity to blossom), and using optical illusions to explore the way we see.

Let’s go check them out!

1. Special Stamps Celebrate British Engineering

Stamps are cool.

And this set of stamps, launched by The Royal Mail, earlier this month are really cool - because they feature a Raspberry Pi!

The diminutaive computer board, that's at the heart of all Kano Computer Kits, is joined by 5 more marvels of British Engineering, including Crossrail, Superconducting Magnets found in MRI machines, the Falkirk Wheel boat lift, the Three Way Catalytic Convertor, and Synthetic Bone Graft Material, to complete the 6 stamp set.

2. The Case for Doing Nothing - By Olga Mecking

Running from place to place and laboring over long to-do lists have increasingly become ways to communicate status: I’m so busy because I’m just so important, the thinking goes.

Perhaps it’s time to stop all this busyness. Being busy — if we even are busy — is rarely the status indicator we’ve come to believe it is. Nonetheless, the impact is real, and instances of burnout, anxiety disorders and stress-related diseases are on the rise, not to mention millennial burnout.

There’s a way out of that madness, and it’s not more mindfulness, exercise or a healthy diet (though these things are all still important). What we’re talking about is … doing nothing. Or, as the Dutch call it, niksen.

3. Optical Illusions Show How We See - Beau Lotto @ TED

Beau Lotto’s color games puzzle your vision, but they also spotlight what you can’t normally see: how your brain works. This fun, first-hand look at your own versatile sense of sight reveals how evolution tints your perception of what's really out there.